Chapterfest on-site registration

This was my first chapterfest, and as a club member I looked forward to attending. To save time on the morning of the event, I pre-registered some time ago. Once inside the event, I enjoyed meeting other club members, eating a nice lunch, enjoying the terrific fall weather, spectating at all of the events, and seeing the wide range of BMWs in attendance. Well done - thanks!

However, after spending a very long time standing in the event's two non-moving entrance lines, only to find myself part of a staff-mandated mass-move to a different line (which moved even more slowly); listening to registration staff complain about computer problems; seeing attendees berated by staff members for not pre-registering, etc., I came close to getting back into my car and leaving.

Over more years than I care to admit I have been a member of other car clubs and served as a staff member for many events. The level of registration woes I experienced at our club's chapterfest exceeded anything those clubs would have tolerated. We have to do a better job during that the critical first stage of an event that we sponsor - put our best face forward.

Perhaps my work as a professional continuous process improvement contractor makes me overly sensitive to disorganization. Nonetheless, my exerience during the roughly one hour I wasted trying to enter our chapterfest showed me a less than optimally functioning process. We can do better than that.

2011 ChapterFest Greeter?

As a member of multiple clubs for several marques for over 45 years, and as a person who has managed all kinds of events for same, I can attest to the fact that we would welcome a qualified volunteer to be the on-site ChapterFest Official Greeter for next year.

So often the (relatively) few people who have worked incredibly long hours to plan the event hear negative criticism from inexperienced attendees. I know that quite a few people worked on this ChapterFest, and my hat's off to them all.

However, the ChapterFest prime mover was Algie [Bimmernupe] - the same guy that planned the very popular NCC series of "Pie Runs". Without checking with him, it is my guess that Algie put between 500 and 1500 hours of his own personal time into this event. Why? - to make it as enjoyable as he could for each NCC member...and furthermore for many folks that weren't even members!

Algie is indeed an NCC member who should be recognized as a person who goes out of his way to plan fun events for the enjoyment of every attendee. Algie and his kind are rare people to have as club members!

I believe that the author of this thread fully appreciates all the work involved, and makes the suggestion for the sole purpose of improving future events, and we should welcome his suggestion to have a representative to assuage impatient people at future events. Perhaps he can help us with this.

It was definitely noted that registration was the one area where we need vast improvement, and there were other issues as well. Obviously, best laid plans don't always flow so smoothly when Murphy's involved, but we'll address the issues head on. We appreciate everyone who stuck it out and apologize to those who it caused some grief.

We could always use more volunteers and people who can help solve problems, so anyone wishing to be on the ChapterFest 2011 committee, we'll be looking for you as we plan for next year's event.